‘Size isn’t an objective for us’: MSC’s Soren Toft

‘Size isn’t an objective for us’: MSC’s Soren Toft
Sam Chambers January 7, 2022 https://splash247.com/size-isnt-an-objective-for-us-mscs-soren-toft/

Soren Toft, CEO of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), has passed comment on one of this week’s biggest shipping stories – his company surpassing his old employers, Maersk, at the top of the liner rankings.

Toft, who joined MSC 13 months ago, having previously been COO at 2M partner Maersk, has presided over a swift rise of the Swiss line, which, with the purchase of the the 4,992 teu Mexico, topped the liner rankings compiled by Alphaliner.

We never set a specific target to be the biggest

“Size isn’t an objective for us,” Toft claimed, adding: “At MSC, we never set a specific target to be the biggest. Growth, profitability and supporting customers are what have driven us, and what will continue to drive us forward.”

With a confirmed vessel orderbook of almost exactly 1m teu, the largest of all carriers, MSC is expected to further consolidate its position as the world’s largest containerline over the course of 2022.

Maersk has been the world’s largest containerline since the 1990s. In recent years it has repeatedly stated its intention be a logistics integrator with a fleet no larger than 4m to 4.4m teu.

“If MSC ends up having more capacity than we do, that’s not the end of the world,” Maersk CEO Søren Skou said during Maersk’s capital markets day last May. “That’s not how we think about being number one. Our focus is on having a much higher turnover per container that we ship.”